The September Crime Report .. Going up!!???

With crime statistics such as Homicides matching last September’s level, an increase in Rape over last month, and Burglary up 10% over last month; I expect the Minneapolis “elected” to be celebrating in the days to come stating that crime is down. I would rather poll my neighbors and get their reactions to police warnings such as the ones stating that we lock our doors and windows because of the crime wave currently affecting a number of areas of the city. Maybe I should talk with “U” students to see if they are feeling safe on campus with the recent rapes and murders. I could talk with people in the Somali community who have experienced the recent attacks on their friends and neighbors. Huh… sounds like a safe city to me!!!!

In Minneapolis it’s “Crime to the left of me…Crime to the Right..Here I am stuck in the city with you”

Undeniably the headlines are not good coming out from Minneapolis.
Pedestrians in five neighborhoods robbed at gunpoint
Six Somali men shot to death since December
Women raped at the “U”
Slaying of an Augsburg student
Mentally illness woman raped in ally
Man found on railway tracks dead
Cyclist dies after run over by a truck.

What is the city council focusing on?
WiFi
Green Technology
Replacing the goodie money for the NRP
Continued digging into the treatment of the “protesters” at the RNC
Making the city walkable.

All I have to say is ….priorities, priorities, priorities.

“The Elected” need to get reeducated on economics

Hennepin County is looking to cap property tax increase at 7% is the big news. Wow, thank you Commissioners! You are the greatest! The inflation rate so far this year has only risen by an average of 3.86%, and the lowest inflation rate increase over the last three occurred in the final four months of the year. BTW, that would bring down the average if that trend continues this year. The inflation increases over the last three years were 2.85%, 3.24%, and 3.39%. Why does Government need to grow way over the rate of inflation? Who do you know has had an increase in income of over 7% this past year? This only represents the county potion of the property tax increase. It doesn’t represent the increase in state and city property, school, park, sales, user fee, and other misc funding mechanisms. Why is the cap of 7% something to celebrate? The isn’t a cut in the rate we are paying it’s only a cut in the increase we are paying. Is that really the way to help working families out? Minneapolis and Hennepin County officials are trying to “paint lipstick on a pig” here and say they are trying to help families out. What happen to tax cuts?

A city that doesn’t work

According to the Mayor crime is worse that it has been. Whew..talking out of two sides of your face. Straight from the Mayor’s web site.
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Closing the Gaps
Closing the gaps between the haves and have-nots is the most important value for our city because the story of this period in Minneapolis cannot be a tale of two cities. While billions of dollars of investment are lifting most of this city, parts of Minneapolis are falling further behind. Crime is worse, unemployment is higher, heath and education disparities are growing. I believe that the role of government is more about leveling the playing field than about treating everyone equally. Where there is disproportionate need, we need to make disproportionate investment. We have proven in the Phillips neighborhood, where a once-distressed area is now creating more jobs than any other part of the state, that investment in areas in need pays off tenfold. We need to reproduce the success of Phillips to north Minneapolis and the entire city.
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The biggest problem that the Mayor nor the council really seem to properly address is the high taxes that the city has. Be it taxes on business, property, sales, user, or amount heavy handed fees, Minneapolis faces some of the highest around. The education system is a complete failure, and the city keeps getting whacked by lawsuits for things that are avoidable or the results of their overreaching authority. One of the most distressing parts of being low income is being able to meet the basic needs.
- If you want to own a home.. you need to pay high property taxes … to pay the city.
- If you want electrical, water, sewer, and trash service for your home… you have high fees and taxes to pay..the city.
- If you want to educate your kids… you have to pay high school taxes … to the city… and get failed results… so you need to go to some alternative … which costs less but you still have to pay the high school taxes .. to the city in addition to your choice.

Whew… what a crazy cycle of tax and spend .. and for what?

Minneapolis one of the most livable cities in the world..hogwash

Minneapolis officials maybe feeling their oats over this ranking, but not so fast. Take a look at the web site of the publication that issued the ranking www.monocle.com.
They seem to miss a number of key elements that make up the livability of a city. They mention crime rates, but Minneapolis total crime picture doesn’t look all that great when you dig into the numbers. They don’t mention schools, which isn’t one of the time proven key factors in the quality of a city. They fail to mention anything about cost of living in a city, and Minneapolis doesn’t have a good record on that account. They do mention business climate, but all you need to do is look around and see that is not so great in Minneapolis. The factors that Monocle uses are self-admittedly subjective and focused more on environmental and cultural issues rather than substantive factors. Over the last year Minneapolis has received a number of these rankings from different publications, but they all surround factors that are very subjective and lean towards environmental and cultural factors. It depends on what the editors and readers of the publications deem important. All these factors are nice and can contribute to the overall experience living in the city, but the foundation bedrock factors are seriously lacking. It’s like building a house with all of the beautiful windows, doors, siding, roof, but it is missing a solid slab and ends up sinking into the ground and falling apart. That describes Minneapolis.